Medically induced menstruation does not provide relief for women suffering from the monthly misery of premenstrual syndrome, doctors reported in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
A National Institutes of Mental Health study of 14 women whose periods were induced medically during the premenstrual phase of menstruation found that the medication mifepristone did not influence either the ”timing or the severity of PMS symptoms.”
”The hormonal changes that constitute the premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle in all probability do not cause symptoms of premenstrual syndrome,” said Dr. Peter J. Schmidt, a behavioral endocrinologist at NIMH.
”Instead, premenstrual syndrome may be triggered by hormonal changes occurring earlier in the menstrual cycle, or it may represent a mood-state disorder that has become linked to the hormonal cycle.”
The cause of premenstrual syndrome, which afflicts 47 percent of women, has eluded researchers.
